Under Unfortunate Circumstances
by Chrisie Morgan
Summary: When the Burkes take a trip on the USS Titanic, they never expected to loose all that they did . . . or gain what they never knew that they wanted. This is my take on a  historical version of the White Collar characters. Please read and review!
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, hey! I just decided to put this up today, I just finished a book about the Titanic and I really want to do a new story to help with my writers block, so this should be good. I don't really know much about the time period other than the Titanic, I have done a lot of studying on that, so if you notice anything wrong with something, please let me know!**

**I hope that you all like it! Please review!**

"Oh, Honey!" Elizabeth exclaimed, who had her arm through her husband, Peter's "It is perfect!"

The two walked on to the USS Titanic and they knew that this really was grander than any other boat that they had ever been on.

Peter made a lot of money with his job and he liked to treat his wife to frequent vacations all around the world, and as soon as they heard about the Titanic, he just knew that he an his wife had to go, and from the look on her face at that moment, he knew that he was absolutely right!

They were first class passengers on this grand ship, it was a little pricier than Peter would have liked, but when the bell boy came to them and escorted them to their room, they knew that this was worth every penny.

"Is that all, sir?" The poor boy who carried all of there bags asked.

"Yes," Peter replied, taking out some cash and giving it to the boy, "Thank you, that should be all."

The boy gave Peter and Elizabeth a small nod and a smile then left. Elizabeth gave Peter a smile and a sweet hug, "Thank you so much!" she said.

He leaned down and kissed her gently on the lips and smiled; "You are more than welcome, my dear." he replied, he would do anything for his wife.

"This room is beautiful!" she said, letting go of Peter and walking over to the bed and gently sitting down, "This is going to be the best trip to America that we have ever taken." she said with a smile.

"Yeah, well I am just happy that you are here with me, as long as you are here, it will be an amazing trip." he said, walking over to his wife and leaning down to kiss her once more.

Later that night, the Burkes went to enjoy a nice dinner on the sky deck. The sun was still in the sky, but it was quickly sinking into the water, leaving vibrant shades of oranges, yellows, and reds.

The waiter brought the two to a table and gave them their menus. While they were looking through them, they heard a commotion from the deck below them, and out of curiosity, they got up to see what it was.

When they looked down, they saw that there was small group of three boys that were dressed in ragged clothes and had dirty faces being chased by an older man that looked like he worked on the ship. The older man was yelling at the boys to something back, but the boys kept going. The oldest looking boy knocked down a chair and the worker tripped on it, so the boys got away.

"Wow, dinner and a show." Peter joked

Elizabeth just shook her head and smiled, "Aren't we funny tonight?"

"Oh yes," Peter replied huskily, "We are."

They both shared a giggle then got back to looking at their menus.

They both gave their dinner orders to the waiter then sat back in silence. The silence remained for a few minutes, when Elizabeth broke it with conversation; "Did you see how young those boys were?" she asked her husband, "The oldest one couldn't have been older than 12."

Peter just shrugged; "Just some kids looking to get into trouble." he replied.

"But how did they even get onto that deck?" she asked, "Did you see their clothes, they were old and beat up, and that little one, I think he was maybe six, his face was all black and dirty, it looked like they were steerage passengers." she told her husband.

Peter had to admit, they did look really poor to be on a deck of that high of a level, his wife was probably right, she usually was, those kids were most likely steerage passengers. "I guess your right." he told her, "It is curious about how they got up this high on the deck if they are only steerage."

"Yes," Elizabeth agreed, "I wonder what they took to be so valuable."

"I don't know, but I will ask a worker tomorrow about it and see if he know," Peter told his wife as the waiter re-appeared with their dinner, "but for now, let us eat!" he said, digging into his food, which was amazing, this really was going to be the trip of a lifetime.

**So what do ya think? It is a little different from my usual M.O. so I thought that I would shake it up a bit, please let me what you think about it so far. And one more thing, if you have any ideas of some activities that they can do on the boat, you know, before the ice berg, please let me know. I want this to be a good story, so that means a believable one, and that means that I can't really have the ship sink right away, that took a couple of days for them to find the iceberg in the middle of the ocean. **

**Oh, and one more thing, if any one questions any location or something to that affect, you know, anything that has to do with the physical layout of the ship, you know, if you think that something doesn't match up, I have a map that I got when my class visited the water research center that sent out the search crew that acually found the Titanic, so anything that I write about something like that, I have looked it up on my map, it is right. But if you have a question, please feel free to let me know because I would love to answer them. hahaha, have a great night and please review on your way out!**

**~Chrisie **


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello again, nice to see you all again! Hahaha, so thank you to all the people who read the last chapter, I really enjoy writing things when people enjoy reading it, as I'm sure any writer would say. I want to thank the person who pointed out that it had been written USS Titanic instead of RMS Titanic, it got changed when I did my spell checker thingie, but now that I know about it, I shall make sure that it stays the same. **

**Well enough of my seemingly pointless babble, let me get on with this.**

**Oh! One more thing, I was informed that I really should be writing a disclaimer before each chapter, so here we go, better late than never, right?  
>Disclaimer: White Collar is owned by USA, not by me. So sad, right?<strong>

The two finished their dinner and retired to their room for the night, they were tired after the long train ride that they had taken earlier that morning so that they could get to the dock on time to board the ship. Unlike most of the passengers on the boat, the first class ones anyways, the Burkes had not brought a servant with them aboard this passage. Even though they were high-class citizens, they could still do things on their own.

As the two unpacked their things and put them away in their various spots, they noticed that the room was very highly decorated for a single room: it had a bed, two night stands on either side of the bed. It had shelves and a washroom with two washing basins. It had nice carpet throughout and the whole room was themed blue, as well as the bed spread the laid on top of the queen-sized bed.

They finished packing and Elizabeth excused herself to undress in the washroom. With the door shut behind her, Peter then was about to start getting himself ready for bed when he then heard a knock at the door, he went to answer it and saw that it was the same bell boy that had shown them to their room, he was now holding a tray with two steaming mugs on it as well as some cookies, "Would you like them, sir?" he said with a small smile, seeing that Peter was eyeing them carefully.

Peter smiled, "Yes, that would be great. You can bring them in and put them over on the table there." He said, stepping aside and letting the boy in.

After he set them down, the boy wished Peter a good night and said that if he put the tray out in the hall way, the boy would come and get it.

"Thank you." Peter said to the boy, "Oh, and what is your name?" Peter asked him.

The boy smiled; "Robert, sir." He answered.

"Okay, well thank you, Robert. I will leave the tray out when we are done with it." Peter told Robert as he left the room.

A small bit after, Elizabeth walked back into the room and sat down on the seat across from Peter at the table. She had her hair down and was only wearing her nightgown, "Yum! Something smells good!" she said, looking over to tray that Robert had brought.

Peter nodded in agreement; "Yes, it does smell very good." He said, placing a mug on the table next to his wife.

He took the plate of cookies off the tray and set them on the table. He took the tray and set it on the ground after taking his own mug off and setting on the table.

"Yum! This coco is really good!" Elizabeth said taking a big sip of it.

"Yeah, this whole ship is really amazing!" Peter said, "I am so glad that we spent the extra money to sail 1st class. It doesn't get much better than this." He said leaning back.

"Yes," Elizabeth agreed, "Have you seen all the actives that they have to for children?" she asked as she got a wishful look in her eye.

"No, I hadn't noticed actually." Peter admitted.

Elizabeth nodded then asked; "So did you find out what happened on the deck while I was in the tea room with the other ladies?"

"Yes, I did actually." Peter said, "Apparently, the children were able to trick the man guarding one of the gates into thinking that he was actually first class and had had their clothes stolen by some of the steerage passengers, and they just wanted to get back to their cabins before their mom sees the clothes that they were wearing." Peter explained.

"Oh, I see . . ." Elizabeth said thinking, "I wonder what they stole."

"They stole some of the things off the ship's safe; such as jewelry, watches, and apparently, some of the passengers had some money in there that was stolen." Peter told his wife.

"Wow, I wonder if their mother or father know what they have been up to . . ." Elizabeth replied.

"I guess that there are many children sailing alone on this voyage. I think those boys were some of them." Peter told her.

"How awful! They must have no parents." Elizabeth said.

"Or they ran away." Peter replied, "Or, it is possible that they were kidnapped by someone and forced to do those things."

"Oh, I hope not." Elizabeth said, feeling so bad for those boys.

Peter chuckled at his wife, she always has had a heart of gold; sympathy for everybody, "We should go to bed, my dear." Peter told his wife, helping her off the chair and walking over to the bed with her.

She smiled and shook her head, she loved it when she and her husband got time together like this. She hoped that it would never end.

**So? What do you think? I know that this one is short, but I have had so little time to write and I just wanted to get this posted sooner rather than later. Please leave a review on your way out!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello everyone! I am so sorry that I have not been updating lately. I know, I know! I really have been trying, but I just started basketball season and being the only freshman on a varsity squad is not easy. That, and we have mid-terms coming up and everything is just crazy when it comes to the lack of time that I have lately. Well, enough of my words and crap. Shall we go on with the story?**

**Disclaimer: I don't know if I have done one yet with this story, but I have been advised that it is most likely a good idea, seeing how I really don't feel like getting sued today . . . or any other day in fact . . . hahaha. So here it is: Yes It is true. I do, in fact, not own White Collar. So sad, right?**

The Burkes had a relatively uneventful sail for the next two days of sailing. The water was calm and the two made met many couples in first class. Peter and Elizabeth spend many hours playing card games with the other passengers and with one another. They had spend a lot of time in the boat library slash writing room. First class, of course.

"Did you hear about the latest crime aboard the ship?" one lady sitting next to the Burkes in the writing section of the room said to the other at her table.

"No! There was another one?" The lady replied in shock.

"Yes! They did a search down in steerage and they came up with nothing. They searched all the beds, bags, and even all the passengers; but still nothing!"

"They searched the passengers?" the one replied to the other, "Wow! I am so glad that they are not searching us that way, aren't you Glenda? I feel violated just thinking about it!"

"I know what you mean!" Glenda replied, "But come on, Shelly! We have paid so much more money to be on this ship than those poor peasants. They would never do that to us, don't you worry. If they do; they will be hearing strongly from my husband."

"Oh, your right of course." Shelly replied, "So what do they think happened to the stole things?" she asked her friend.

"Well. Word has it that whoever did it got scared and threw the things out the port hole. Now they are lost at sea." she said, and the two laughed, happy that they had not been robbed.

"Wow!" Elizabeth said, overhearing their conversation, "Do you think that those kids are the one still committing those crimes?" she asked her husband.

"Possibly." he said, rubbing his chin in deep thought, "I wonder what they took now." he pondered out loud.

"I don't know." El replied, "But do you think that they would really go to all that trouble of stealing the things just to throw them out the port hole into the ocean?" she asked Peter.

"I don't know. If it was the kids, then maybe they became very frightened. Especially if they are not from money, they would be stuck in prison without a second thought; and with no money for bail or anything, they probably thought that it would be best to just get rid of the stolen things instead of pushing their luck." Peter explained to his wife.

"Your probably right. You usually are about these things." she said with a smile, placing her hand gently on his, "I hope that they stop. I wish that they would just get away with nothing, that includes no prison time. I hate to thing of any child rotting in a prison. Their whole life over; just like that. Such a shame." she finished, shaking her head.

"Your right. It is to bad, but as they say: "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time." he said with a chuckle.

Elizabeth playfully slapped his arm, "Peter Burke, this is not funny!" she said with a big smile on her own face.

They finished up their letters and each took a book for later. They walked out and set their things in their cabin and then headed to lunch, enjoying all that the ship had to offer.

**Okay, I know that this was short and most likely not much of a chapter, but it was very important for the story. Also, I felt it important to get a shorter chapter up now instead of getting a longer chapter up in a few day.**

**I want to thank you all the people who have waited the time that this has taken and have stuck with it. And I want to thank the people who are just now reading this, I hope you enjoyed!**

**Please****leave****a****review****on****your****way****out!****:)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello everyone! I want to thank everyone for sticking with me on this, I know that it has been a while since I have last updated, but I am working on it! Hahaha. Okay, well, I hope you enjoy the chapter. Please review! :)**

Later that night, the Burkes were up late reading and writing letters that they would send out once they arrived to family back home. They were just getting ready for bed when a sudden jolt rocked the ship. Peter was balanced enough that it didn't bother him, but Elizabeth was in the process of walking and she lost her balance and fell.

Peter swooped in and caught her before she hit the ground; "Careful there, Mrs. Burke. You could've hurt yourself there." he said in a very gentleman like tone, still holding her in the place he had caught her.

Elizabeth looked up at Peter with a smile; "Well then I thank you, Mr. Burke, for preventing that from happening." she replied, playing along with the game Peter had set.

Peter carefully set his wife firmly on her feet and then let his arms slip around her waist and rest on her lower back. He pulled her in for a kiss; "Glad to be of services." he said to her.

Elizabeth wrapped around his neck and kissed him again. "Do you notice something different?" she asked after a while.

Peter was silent for a minute; "The engines." he replied, noticing the lack of the familiar hum that accompanied them for the past couple of days.

"Yes." Elizabeth nodded in agreement, "I hope nothing is wrong." she said, getting a worried look on her face.

"I'm sure everything is fine." Peter comforted his wife, "I won't let anything happen to you." he told her.

Elizabeth smiled. The two heard a frantic knock at the door. Peter let go of Elizabeth and answered the door.

"Good evening, sir." said the young stewart at the door.

"Good evening." Peter replied with a slightly confused look on his face.

"There is a test going on and we are requesting all passengers out on the decks." the stewart told Peter, "Please do hurry, and bring your life jacket and something warm to put on." he informed the two, and then he started for the next cabin door.

"Is something wrong?" Peter asked after the young boy.

"Nothing is wrong, just some tests that have to be done, but I do urge that you do not make haste in your departure, sir." he told Peter. His voice was calm, but his face was frantic and urgent.

"Okay, we will go as soon as we can." Peter told the boy.

"Thank you." the boy replied with a nod and a small smile, already knocking on the next door.

"Come on." Peter said, grabbing his wife's jacket and helping her into it.

"What is going on, Peter?" she asked.

"I don't know, but whatever it is, it isn't good. We must make our way to the deck at once." he replied, grabbing his own jacket and a few things that he and his wife treasured and putting them in his own pocket.

"Peter . . ." Elizabeth tried, but she was at a loss for words, and before she could find any, she was being swept away to the door by Peter's strong arm.

The two arrived on the deck to see many people frantically going in many different directions.

The crew was urging woman and children onto lifeboats. "Please get on the boats! Thank you, thank you. No sir, woman and children first, please. Woman and children first!"

"What's going on?" Elizabeth asked.

"I think we are sinking." Peter said in astonishment.

He quickly got over that and did the one thing that he knew that was important; he lead his wife to the lifeboat.

"But wait! Peter! I am not going without you!" Elizabeth protested, but Peter would not hear of it.

"No, I want you safe. I would not be able to be peaceful in my departure knowing that you will die too, all because of me. Now let's go." he ordered his wife, taking her over to what seemed like one of the last life boats on the deck.

"Peter, I love you. So much!" Elizabeth told him, giving him the most passionate kiss that she could manage at the time.

Peter returned the kiss, and went to help her on the life boat. He straddled the two sides of each boat and helped his wife across the make-shift bridge that was really only a deck chair. "I love you." Peter told his wife as she went to find a place to sit.

"I love you too." she replied.

Just as Peter was about step off of the lifeboat and onto the sinking ship, they started to lower the lifeboat to the water. The sudden change in motion caused Peter to loose his balance and fall. He tumbled into the water and surfaced only to hear screeches from the people in the life boat. One of which was Peter's wife.

The sudden chill of the water sank all the way to Peter's bones. They water sliced through Peter's jacket like knives. Peter saw the two men in the boat offer him an oar for him to grab onto. Peter took hold of the oar as strongly as he could manage with his quickly falling body temperature.

The men managed to get Peter into the boat. Peter was shaking violently and was slopping wet.

"Peter!" his wife called, as she quickly made her way over to wear he was sitting.

He looked up at his wife and saw the tears streaking down her face. She had slight smile on her face because she knew that he was in the boat, he was safe for now, as long as the cold didn't catch up to him.

Elizabeth pulled off her own jacket and wrapped started to wrap it around Peter, but he started to protest; "No, you need your jacket, I will be fine." he managed through shivers.

"No, you need it. I am not the one that is soaking wet." she said, securing the jacket around Peter.

He had to admit, he did feel a little warmer. "Thanks, hon." he replied with a shaky smile.

"Your welcome, hon." she replied, giving his a slight kiss on the lips. He may have been soaking wet and freezing, but at least he was not on the sinking ship.

They all turned their attention to the ship. They could still hear the music from the band that never stopped playing. The music was a little off because the deck was leaning so far forward. And then, to everyone's amazement, they could see the bow off the boat slowly begin to disappear. There was an enormous din of shattering glass and crashing metal from inside the ship. People were leaping into the water from all directions, while others scrambled towards the stern in a frantic, hopeless attempt to save themselves.

No one in the boat spoke, or perhaps even breathed. The horror of these last few moments was too awful to watch, but it was impossible to look away. Several woman gasped as the R. M. S. Titanic's front funnel suddenly ripped off, but Elizabeth was silent. The funnel ripped free from the ship and smashed violently into the water. And then her stern rose higher and higher into the air.

The ship appeared as though it broke in half and amidst all the crashing noises, the bow had gone under, and, slowly, the stern was lifted straight up into the sky. They could hear the distant screams as people were thrown off, or else struggled to hang on. The ship's lights were abruptly extinguished, and then came back the on for one final second before they were all plunged into utter darkness.

The clamor of smashing, crashing, tearing metal seem endless. The stern stayed straight up on the air like that, a stark shadow against the stars, for what seemed like hours, but everyone knew was only seconds. Then, with almost stately grace, it gradually slid under the surface of the ocean.

The unspeakable shrieks of hundreds of people dying filled the night. Frenzied, terrified screams. Since the boat that the Burkes were in was close to where the ship had gone under, they could make out the individual voices of people praying for mercy. Calling for people the loved. And then silence.

That's when it hit them. The Titanic was gone.

**So so sad! Please review and let me know what you thought of this chapter.**

**~C. M.**


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